Countless leaves since then
by Stage1
Summary: If you lived forever, how many memories would still cling to your mind? How many battles would you have won? The unknown events are the pivotal ones. Legolas contemplates a certain memory on the way to the undying lands.
1. READ FIRST!

I had to take my story off for a while to edit it, but I'm posting it right back up again. I changed a few things, so for those who have already read it, you should re-read it. I think it's much more free of errors and confusion as well.  
  
So enjoy and review!  
  
Luv, Stage. 


	2. Prologue

The ring was destroyed and the Evenstar has passed, only in our cruel, cruel world would it be allowed for one such as Arwen to pass into a world where no elf should reside, .. and all of it because of man and his unbending mortality.  
  
Man is passionate like an elf cannot be passionate. One does not have to hurry to achieve things when one is to live forever. Anything an elf wants is gained by simply waiting.  
  
It should not surprise people that an elf can fall in love so easily with a human. How can one not fall in love with a being with so much conviction, so much love for life?  
  
I have been called a hotheaded elf and for an elf, .... I am. I! The one who has not really smiled for over a millennia! But all of my battles and all off my reasons for staying in Middle-earth have passed and I now sail on a ship to the undying lands with Gimli.  
  
The sea is beautiful, and water remains unchanged by time unlike so much. The ship rocks with the risings of the ocean and comforts me while the sharp, salt air gives me clarity I have not felt in a long while. The sky is overrun by heavy, gray clouds, tumbling as far as the eye can see and thunder is booming far away even for the lack of rain.  
  
I have always loved this sky best. It has always had it's own brand of romance to it, it's own type of serious contemplation. It gives me the space and feeling of freedom to finally contemplate my own past. Ha! Nothing happens for centuries and then finally so much happens at one time that you don't have even the time to think! Then after everything is done, solved if you will, all the friends, brothers, lovers, you have made though these experiences fade away so swiftly you wonder if they ever really lived at all.  
  
But I cannot regret, .... how many elves can say they were great friends with the king of Gondor before he became the king of Gondor? Or had a dwarf show them the wonders of the Glittering caves? Or had hobbits tell them stories of a world so less static, so much more rustic then an elves world you almost wished you were a hobbit with nothing more to worry about then annoying cousins. And how many elves can say they were part of something so elite that only one elf was part of it, with comrades willing to die for you? All this blessed to a king's bastard son.  
  
And finally, how many elves can say they knew what it truly is to have loved one of those passionate mortals and then perhaps have had their love returned?  
  
Yes, ...... that story no one has heard. 


	3. Mirkwood

It is strange to talk about when I was young for the reason that it has been a very long time since I have been young.  
  
I was born to Thranduil and Ilmae, most likely a common village elf or a palace servant. I am no prince, ... despite popular belief. Ilmae, ... I know little of Ilmae, but for the fact that my father was fond enough of her not to have her killed when I was conceived. Evidently he didn't have the heart to have me killed either.  
  
I have always believed that whatever was between my father and Ilmae was simply an affair that is held quite commonly in the elf world. So commonly in fact that they are only of note when something like me happens. We elves have no inhibitions or modesty's when it comes to such things as lovemaking. I should let you know that she-elves can only conceive when they wish to. My mother must have wanted a child very much to beget me without Thranduil's consent because I know for certain that my father would have never wished to conceive a child with someone he wasn't bound to in marriage and even then, in marriage, he would have only wished for a child so he would have a heir.  
  
I think he must have sent Ilmae away to the undying lands to hush the gossip that must have brewed at my birth. As punishment for her insolence he kept me with him. The only other thing I know of my mother is that people must have loved her. For whenever I asked one of the servants about her when I was still very young they would only smile sadly as if remembering a beautiful, but long lost memory. Later I learned my father had forbidden anyone to speak of her to me.  
  
As I was growing up it was very evident that my father would lend me no parental favors despite the fact that I was his son. He did not even really raise me but rather ordered a wet nurse for me and left my care up to the maids and tutors. My childhood memories of him are of a very tall, cold man sometimes dropping into the nursery to gaze upon me as I played. But these visits were few and far in between and he remained a distant figure who would sometimes order me to him, look at me in the most critical way and then inquire me about my studies. After that, if my studies were going well, he would bark at the maid standing off to the side to find a seamstress to tailor me some new robes. And that was the way it went.  
  
It is difficult to compare the elvish lifespan with the human one. How do you compare an eternity to eighty-some years? But while the elves do age to a certain point then stop, while they are still growing it is possible to compare them with mortals. An Elvish childhood and adolescence lasts around fifty years and they are only truly adult when they are around the age of sixty. That makes it so we age roughly three times slower then humans. The human age of five would be around the Elvish age of fifteen. It is actually a good thing that elves age so slowly, since elves are rather slow learners. All our proficiency on the battlefield stems from countless hours of practice and repetition rather then any extraordinary talent. We practice till knowledge of something becomes habit and then until habit becomes reflex. So I think that my father was rather pleased that by the extremely young age of forty-five I could already shoot fifteen discs, thrown simultaneously in the air, in quick succession, my last arrow flying even before the first disc fell to the ground.  
  
I have always loved archery, my first crude bow gifted to me by a servant that was particularly fond of me, Nimarie. She was, I think, the most mother-like figure in my youth. She would always make sure the cook kept food warm for me if I was late to dinner and she would always sew up the ripped leggings I presented her after a too-wild rondavue in the forest. Whenever I left Mirkwood on scouting trips or other such things, I would always visit her first when I returned. Even before letting Thranduil know I had arrived. She would guide me with the bow when I held it wrong and my arm quivered and then she would always smile indulgently at my progress. Her warm brown eyes turning up at the sides. She was thrilled when I won the archery tournament at the age of fifty-five, that my father set up to see if I was worthy of being a lieutenant of the forest guard. What always irked me about that competition was that it wasn't really needed considering that at the time it was common knowledge that I was the most talented archer in the palace. The most experienced? No. But he also knew that would have come in time as any other elf there did. I think he did it to show the others he wasn't showing me any sort of favoritism. I think his lack of favoritism was clear to me and anyone else present at the tournament. However he did smile rather smugly when I won. It was a victory of his bloodline and therefore a victory of his as well. I cannot tell you how enraged I was at the fact that in that smile he was taking credit for something I had worked so hard to achieve on my own. But then, I was young then and still susceptible to petty rage.  
  
My joining the forest guard symbolized the final end of my childhood and I think Nimarie was very sad to see it go. Elf children are few and far between and while there were around two dozen other elf children in the palace at the time, (That is a practical baby boom where elves are concerned) I was like her surrogate child and I was no longer a child in any terms of the word.  
  
I am no ignorant fool when it comes to my looks. I know my hair shines and that I have well placed features and that my eyes are a nice shade of blue. And though my father was blatantly impartial to me I was still his only child and that earned me a certain respect and prestige, ... especially among the she-elves. I knew that if I asked I could probably gain the company of any she-elf in Mirkwood. Really, ... I didn't even have to ask. 


	4. Friendships

There are many facts about me that countless people would find surprising. Tell me, does it shock you to hear that I was once almost married? When I was not in love? Or that I had a child? I suppose I am now going to explain how these things came to pass. I have told you that I was in the forest guard and I was often out with them on scouting expeditions. The woods of Mirkwood have not been safe since before I was born. It was on one of those very expeditions that I met her, ...but I'll get into that later. There are other things to address first.  
  
My best friend from childhood was Inin Meduae, an imp if ever there was one. We were spaced at only eleven years apart. Before all our obligations came into play, we used to practice archery together every morning after a little incident around my fortieth year and around her thirtieth that involved her stealing my bow. She snuck up behind me and grabbed it right off my back! Thankfully it was returned to me after I threatened to dump her in a mountain ice pond and after that we were fast friends. That's not as strange as you might think, the first step towards friendship has always been to be noticed as something else besides a colorless and meaningless wallflower and stealing my bow most certainly made me acknowledge her existence. I supposed it also knocked me a couple of stairs down the pedestal that my gangly, not-fully-grown self had placed myself upon. Honestly! To have my BOW so blatantly stolen like that!  
  
I think she only used archery as an excuse to spend time with me though, if her father had thought she wasn't spending her time on something useful, and archery was useful, then he probably would have set her to work on something else and we would have never have seen each other. Those archery practices are very fond memories of mine and she would hardly practice at all, she would just lounge around, occasionally fire a shot and tell me about the things that had happened to her the previous day. Her tales were always completely confounding. I was no stranger to adventure even then, but all the things that happened to her in a single day! You could be sure that if ever a green dog passed though Mirkwood she would be the first to see it!  
  
Our relationship became a bit more mature over the years; it cooled down. I think both of us realized it when we came to a point where we could no longer have simply jumped on the other from behind in happiness to see the other. It was no longer thought funny when one of us dyed the other's favorite tunic pink either. We had grown up and maybe a little bit more into our own persons as well. Now our joy to see the other was expressed in giving each other one of our rare smiles in a languid way, lips stretching from ear to ear, and then a soft hug. Then, while I became part of the forest guard, she became a healer and both of our duties were very demanding. We simply didn't see each other as much as we did before and we would often miss our practices. Inin's accidental shooting of a rabbit at archery practice, while not paying attention because of some inane story she had been telling, finalized her abandonment of archery. She wasn't a vegetarian but she certainly didn't hunt either so as a result she had never killed anything personally before. She no longer had an excuse to spend time with me in the mornings and usually that was the only time I was ever free to do as I pleased, the afternoons of my youth mostly dominated by lessons and later by the billion councils my father ordered. Our archery era was over, we were finally truly adults but our friendship was as true as it had ever been. I no longer knew everything of her day-to-day life, but whenever we would meet we would pick up where we left off. Nothing had really changed about us at all.  
  
I think that my friendship with Inin may lull you into thinking I had no other close friends. Inin was obviously the closest but there were others that where quite nearly as close.  
  
Bleth was my dark-haired carousing partner. He had a rather condescending air about him that probably stemmed from his noble blood and he could be the most ridiculous bastard sometimes, but it seemed at times that he had a different she-elf in his bed every week. I'll be damned if I know why. He did however possess a nasty sort of talent with a short-sword and he was of equal rank as me. Sometimes I believe we became friends more out of proximity then actually having anything in common because it seems we were constantly thrown together on assignments. Finaer made us a trio; he was a quiet son of a gardener. He enjoyed the forest as much as I and was much more prone to listen then Bleth. As a trio we often excluded Inin from our activities and without her we were renowned for our mischief. I know for a fact that even alone I can be something of a nuisance; with them I was unstoppable. We gave ample competition to any aspiring hunters and were slightly intimidating standing together at a ball.  
  
By now, I had just past my second century and I was frantically busy despite my adventures. Promotions in my rank were frequent and my responsibilities as a result, endless. Everyone seemed to think it would be a good idea to become one of my "connections" and I rarely had time to myself.  
  
I remember that on the return of my most recent expedition, I almost immediately sought Inin out (After Nimarie of course) in light of the fact that otherwise some over-eager socialite might have sidetracked me. I hadn't seen her in perhaps over two years due to the fact that she had been called to Rivendell for a time for her healing abilities, and I found her in the hall with an almost perfect looking elf. It is quite rare for elves to look quite like she did, for most of our beauty lies in our smooth, white skin, our shining hair and our inability to become anything more then slim. If a human were gifted with these things he would be called fair as well. I had not been living the life of a monk obviously, as I think I have mentioned, but those others have faded and they probably remember me no better then I remember them, my exploits till that point had been based on lust and were guiltless, but she...she was something else. Her figure was in a truly astonishing hourglass shape and her hair was just a shade darker then white. Even her eyelashes where platinum and somehow this accented her sharp gray-green eyes even more then darker eyelashes would have. Her name was Tuel and how I prayed she didn't notice me sigh as it left Inin's lips in the introduction. Sometimes you just meet someone you know is going to be important, someone you almost feel you must have known before and so it was with her. She had me in her thrall; there is no other way to say it. But I was still young, a mere two hundred some years and if I had only just met her now, what happened because of my enthrallment would not have happened. Inin had already seen my face and with a knowing smirk had excused herself even though she was the one who had traveled with Tuel from Rivendell and was in fact the one I had sought out. She flipped her bright red hair over her shoulder and winked at me before exiting and I knew that I would later have to endure her teasing.  
  
I learned only much later how self-centered Tuel was. Oh she was an extraordinary being, so undeniably clever and so enticingly opinionated, but she had such a way of always believing she had gone though infinitely more hardship then others and when you told her how trivial her problems were she would answer in such a way that you would have to hold your tongue because, like the fool I was, I would have never risked losing her. I could only deduct after it was all was done how little she had ever cared for me. I do believe that she believed she loved me... but then she must have never considered love her first priority. I always felt very young whenever I was with her even before I realized her vices and I remember the way she would talk to me would always give me the feeling I wasn't very important to her. If I confronted her with this suspicion she would deny it completely but her denial never really put me at ease She would tell me all of the terrible woes that had befallen her while we lay in the grass together with her head in my lap and it was amazing to think that this elf--maid, who had all of eternity in front of her, buzzed on high-speed and lived the lives of hundreds instead of just one as if she would perish the next dawn. I think she was drawn to me for my honesty, my way of making things simple and so she claimed her love for me, announced her faithfulness and stayed with me. I was endlessly grateful, for I had thought that this had confirmed that I was as dear to her as she was to me and so I gave her advice for all her maladies and stayed waiting in her shadow to comfort her.  
  
This is not to say that we didn't have our moments of mindless joy. There were days when we visited well known hot-ponds together, where we bathed together, the heat driving us to a burning delirium and other days when we would lay under the cool shade of trees, reading to each other. There were waterfalls and singing birds that we would silently regard together. There were dawns and dusks occupied by watching the mysterious shadows play across her face. There were hundreds of festivals and balls where envious eyes would play upon our backs, the backs of the fair couple, and we would hide our amusement with our hands. There were nights spent climbing cliffs in the thrilling, dangerous dark and nights when her and I and all our friends, Inin, Bleth, Finaer and sometimes elves we had only just met, would run into the woods at night, grasping flasks of wine and then we would dance to nothing but the music of the forest. In these moments she became an enchantress. And isn't it odd that though I was undoubtedly chained to her, I had never, in our years yet together, considered marrying her? She was the one who brought it up...and oh how I was shocked when she slipped a ring over my finger and slid her arms around me, pressing her lips to mine. As if I had already agreed. 


	5. Marriage

I suppose you would think that all the... activities of my youth would have brought about the disapproval of Thranduil, but in all honesty he simply didn't seem to care very much bar for an incident when he called me to his chambers and told me to make sure that none of them would get with child. I suppose the happenings with my mother must have left a deeper impression on him then most would think.  
  
When my engagement with Tuel was announced, Thranduil seemed almost...approving. I think he liked Tuel, but then she did come from Rivendell nobility, so I suppose he could have just been thinking of the bloodline. As of yet, he had no other heir besides me. What would the fate of Mirkwood be if he accidentally slipped on puddle, cracked his head open like an egg and the only child he had didn't become king because he himself hadn't acknowledged his only child's existence? So even if he never really announced it, I think he made it clear that if he died, I would be the one to take over his throne. Of course everyone knew this but me, so I simply continued struggling along with my duties as if my future wasn't already set in stone. Well it was until he had other, legitimate children.  
  
Everyone was ecstatically and disgustingly excited about the upcoming wedding. Bleth and Finaer seemed to become equally raucous about the whole thing, winking at me, clapping me on the back, telling jokes on how I would never be the same again and taking me out so often that I was at almost all times divided into two very harsh extremes, intoxicated or on the morning after, painfully not. All the females in my proximity were going insane as well. If I had been popular before, I was now most certainly a god. They were everywhere. Even Nimarie couldn't help but coo at me whenever I was with her, telling me how happy she was that I was finally settling down and ordering the rest of the staff around with the wedding arrangements. All of this from her was amazingly patronizing. Tuel was nothing short of smug.  
  
Finally, I looked Inin up in hopes of having a conversation that did not center on the bloody wedding. Of course I could not find her anywhere.  
  
When a running page passed me in the hall and mentioned that people were needed to scout the forest because of recent wolf attacks I jumped at the assignment and told him hurriedly I would take care of it. I practically ran out of the palace to do some solitary wolf hunting and while I did I could mull over the things that had happened in a few, short seconds. It was autumn and the leaves fell floatingly to the ground, swinging from side to side. The slight drizzle had made the discolored leaves under my feet yield without resistance or crackle and the sky was heavy much like it is now on this boat. When Tuel had proposed I had realized one thing. She had deceived me into believing I had needed her all that time when it was the other way around. But I knew that I was ever chained to her like I was before and it would not be I who left her. That was of course when a small dark figure stumbled out of the underbrush, shocking me out of my thoughts.  
  
This was of course when I met her.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's note: I haven't gotten very many reviews yet, but the ones I have gotten have all been very positive, so thank you to anyone who reviewed me. Oh and constructive criticism is always welcome. This is my first fanfic so I hope it isn't too bad or anything. Now these are just some things I want to make perfectly clear so there is absolutely no confusion:  
  
-This is NOT going to be slash of any kind.  
  
- Tuel is Not evil.  
  
- There might a different POV in one of the following chapters.  
  
- Inin is NOT going to be a love interest.  
  
All right that's it. Sorry for the short chapter, but that was mostly for dramatic effect. The next chapter is probably going to be pretty long. Enjoy. 


	6. The Meeting

Legolas remembered a story Nimarie had once told him when he was drowsily falling asleep, still a very little child. The lingering impression of sadness still pressed upon his mind on remembrance of it's telling and of the glowing, animated face of Nimarie in the firelight and her low, smooth tones whispering into his ear.  
  
  
  
She had told him of a lovely little elf-child who had fallen in love with a magical bird, in love with it's brilliantly colored wings, so sleek and fine, so jade and cerulean, and with it's nightingale's song rising in the wind, whistling high and sung slowly as if just for her.  
  
  
  
She had taken care of the bird, and called it Yúla quessë, for the breaching glow of dawn on it's feathers and because ' bird,' would have simply been too plain. She followed it everywhere and shaped out of simple blocks of stone the most magnificent bird- baths for it and out of her hand did it feed on only the best morsels. And truly, after a time the elf-girl could longer imagine her life without it and forgot all about her life and family in her worship of Yúla quessë.  
  
  
  
It so came that Yúla quessë possessed the power to ward away any foe with his brilliance. On one fine morn, while he and the elf-girl were passing by a stream, he and the elf- girl encountered the most hideous bear imaginable. His cowardice showed it's true colors then and despite his abilities, Yúla quessë took to the air, abandoning the elf-girl, but the bear struck him down before he escaped and his frail body was crushed beyond repair.  
  
  
  
The elf-girl, thinking Yúla quessë had flown up to defend her and not abandon her, took up his small body and ran, escaping the bear.  
  
  
  
When in solitude, she wept bitterly at her loss and her tears fell upon his shattered body, clasped tightly to her breast. With every fallen tear, his body was hardened and crystallized, until he was nothing short of pure diamond. The elf-girl had wept so endlessly that not a drop of life lingered on in her body and she passed, unaware of her friend's transformation.  
  
  
  
Nimarie had then stopped, scrutinized his sleepy form and said in a hushed voice " Come, timpi melon," and had tugged him out of his bed. The floor had been very chill on his feet, but he did not mind. He knew wherever she brought him would promise to be exciting.  
  
  
  
She had motioned for him to be quiet and had led him down countless halls and stairs, finally stopping before a heavy, iron-wrought door. Out of her apron pocket, she had drawn a beautiful, gold key, twisted like vines and decorated with emerald leaves. This he recognized as his father's, but he did not ask her how she had obtained it. Instead he had watched as she slipped it in the lock and turned it with a faint click.  
  
  
  
The room he entered was dark, the torches from the hall only illuminated enough to suggest glittering things lying there, spread out around the room. Nimarie had taken his hand and had brought him into the room, picking her way carefully, never bumping into a thing. She stopped when they had reached their destination and had struck up a match.  
  
  
  
In the glow of the fire, Legolas had seen upon a pedestal a magnificently carved, diamond bird. But the morbidity of the bird lay in the fact that it was on it's back, wings spread out and it's head in an odd angle, . as if dead. Yet it was still disturbingly beautiful, the light of the match adding color to the sleek hard lines of the diamond bird and bouncing off it's shining sides.  
  
"Legolas? Do you see that fault in the middle of the diamond? That was where Yúla quessë's heart once was, for people say that when he flew from that elf- girl, he did not die from the blow from the bear but rather from the fact that his heart had simply disappeared."  
  
  
  
Later, Legolas had learned that this room was one of his father's many treasuries and the bird simply an acquisition, but as a child he had been awed to have proof of such a tale and the magic of Nimarie's words had endured for him.  
  
  
  
He had told Shao Ring this tale once, while watching her dark, almond- shaped eyes flicker over her book in the dim light of her room. She had listened without even looking up from her book in her lap and had replied,  
  
  
  
" It sounds like you and your Tuel."  
  
  
  
"What character would you be then?" he had quirked, not really thinking.  
  
  
  
"I suppose that I would be the bear," she had answered, not even twitching.  
  
  
  
He had been inclined to agree with her. If any pain had registered at her realization and his lack of disagreement, she had not shown it, her eyes continuing to move over the page.  
  
* * *  
  
I want to say a few things about the disposition I was in when I met Shao Ring.  
  
  
  
I was tired, I had a low throbbing headache at the back of my head courtesy of Bleth and Finaer, I was getting married to someone who needed me but who did not love me, who took comfort in me but who would never consider returned that comfort and, . I was hunting for wolves. So when a small, dark figure came hurtling out at me, I had raised my bow and shot it before I knew what I was doing.  
  
  
  
The figure was now hysterically half screaming, half crying and half gasping in a language that was as of yet unintelligible and I realized this being was most certainly not an elf and it was a woman. It had a tangled mass of hair that I was sure would be black if it had been free of all the twigs and mud, and even through grime and sweat provided a thick layer over her skin, the up-slanting eyes, flattish nose and pale, bronze-tinged skin were plainly visible. Her cheekbones were broad, but her cheeks themselves were hallowed out as if she had lost a lot of weight very quickly.  
  
  
  
That's when I made another astoundingly, acute observation on my part.  
  
  
  
She was an Easterling.  
  
  
  
I think I can be forgiven for the fact that I didn't know what race she was immediately, I had after all never seen an Easterling before save for the few drawings I had seen of them in books prior to meeting her. Fascinated, I began to scrutinize her more thoroughly, almost oblivious to the fact that she very much still had an arrow in her arm, that she was clutching with her good arm as if that could relieve the pain, and was clumsily backing up into a tree. Her eyes were darting wildly over my too-clean hair and pointed ears. I suppose she had never seen an elf before either. Her clothing was odd. There must have had some sort of padding underneath because it made body look rather thick and bundled up. Her trousers and shirt were made of lightweight blue cotton. The shirt came halfway down her thighs and was tied at the waist by a thick piece of black cotton from which a variety of items hung. Her sleeves were tucked into palm-less bracers and her pant bottoms into long, dirty white socks, which were in turn fitted into strange, slipper like shoes. Thrown over her shoulders was the only item of familiarity, a hooded cloak. The cloak was tattered and ripped however. It was practically useless but it must have serviced to get her past towns safely without people recognizing her for her race. That's when I realized she had long since stopped screaming and saw her draw from behind her cloak a small long-handled dagger. I lowered my bow.  
  
  
  
She eyed me wearily, but lowered her dagger a little. I hadn't really been threatened by it anyway, if I wished I certainly could have unarmed her, but considering that I had already shot her, I decided to allow her to hold to that bit of dignity. I'm going to interject that I, being the son of Thranduil, had before then already received at least a basic course in all of the languages of Middle-earth. I had never furthered my education in Easterling, but really what elf would really need to speak Easterling in his life?  
  
" Ni shi sui? Wei se me ni zai zher?" I asked her in my fractured, badly pronounced Easterling, managing that fairly smoothly only because it was constructed of very simple words.  
  
Who are you? Why are you here?   
  
Her eyebrows shot up. She probably hadn't encountered anyone on her journey that could speak Easterling.  
  
  
  
" First tell me who you are, . and what your trouble is with myself or wisely be on your way before I attempt to hurt you, " she said gasping in Easterling. As almost an afterthought she added, " I would also very much like to know how it came to be that I have an arrow in my arm," then under her breath, "sha gua."  
  
  
  
Her voice was hoarse, but I was still surprised at how beautiful a language it was, and I could only discern bits and pieces of it. I hadn't understood the last phrase she had used at all. Later I had learned that it had been a rather rude expletive. Even my tutors had, compared to her, pronounced the language in a very high and nasal tone. The sentence structure was much different from Common but her words flowed together like water.  
  
  
  
" I am Legolas, son of Thranduil and am of the elven folk. I was patrolling these lands till you came." I said while examining her wound, briefly scanning over it with my eyes.  
  
  
  
By now she had lowered her dagger realizing that she had gotten shot by accident. She even looked a little smug as if she were laughing at my stupidity. But I could have been wrong since her face was still a little screwed up from the pain and her anger.  
  
  
  
Before she could re-raise her dagger, I had swiftly stepped over to where she sat by the tree, took hold of the arrow and shoved. The sound she made after that I would very much like to forget, even more so the blow she dealt to my nose after it and the crunch of bone following. I had seriously seen the mistake in taking her by surprise like that.  
  
" Mu goa!" she shrieked at my ear, starting to cry again.  
  
Another phrase I didn't understand, but one that I was certain wasn't positive. She had curled up into a fetal position and of course I, concerned with my own newly acquired wound, lay on my back, gazing up at the kaleidoscope of colors that even an elf had not the ability to witness unless in the same predicament as I. Very slowly I stood up, feeling blood gush out of my nose over my mouth at shirt, and crawled over to where she lay. I flipped her none too gently on to her back (she had broken my nose) and straddled her waist, pinning her uninjured arm with my knee. She shrieked and struggled, flapping her injured arm to try and hit me but me being swifter, I grabbed her arm, broke the head off the arrow and pulled the shaft out. All I can tell you is the she wasn't exactly silent during this event, my sensitive elf ears cried for a full day after. I suppose I can't blame her though, I must have looked like a demon with all that blood smeared over my face, especially in her delirium.  
  
  
  
After that she passed out which I was actually somewhat thankful for. I took a small flask of bourbon from my belt, that I had been carrying around with me quite frequently as of late, and took a long gulp from it trying to forget just how much worse my headache had gotten. I poured the rest over her wound and sighed, looking around to take in my surroundings. I sighed again when I saw the familiar hill to the right and rock formation to the left and realized we were about a good five kilometers from the palace. I'd probably have to carry her the whole way. I took solace in the fact that if I hadn't taken her by surprise she probably wouldn't have let me pull out the arrow. Then again, I wouldn't have a broken nose either. I then realized that I had not even learned her name yet and it was starting to get dark.  
  
  
  
I was disgusted at my diplomatic skills and after we had exchanged less then a dozen sentences!  
  
Very tired, I started to gather up the things she had spilt when she had come crashing though the forest. Glancing over to where she lay on the ground, entangled in a fallen branch, I plucked a dead leaf from her hair.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's note: Thanks again for all the positive reviews.  
  
The 'Easterling' I use is actually Chinese, and not very good Chinese either, but I don't actually know Easterling so.since I already identified Easterlings with Asian people anyway.  
  
' Yúla quessë' is Quenya for 'ember feathers' and ' timpi melon' means ' little beloved' in Sindarin. Oh and I know the characters I made up do not have proper elvish names so don't flame me for it.  
  
The different POV scene will eventually make sense. It's a bit like a flashback. Like Legolas is telling his story and then he thinks of something that happens later down the road.  
  
This is where the plot is going to start developing.  
  
So please review and enjoy.  
  
Luv, Stage 


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